Brickworks to re-enter market as WA grapples with brick shortage

Three years after it was mothballed, national brick maker Brickworks will restart operations at its Austral Bricks facility in Cardup, south of Perth, with the help of taxpayers.

The state government will spend $4 million to restart operations at the Cardup plant and boost brick production in WA by 10 to 15 per cent in a bid to address the state’s crippling shortage, which has home builders fearing for their futures.

The money will include a $3 million payment to Brickworks to recommission equipment at the Cardup site as well as a $500,000 payment to ensure the plant resumes operations by March.

Another $500,000 payment will be made if Brickworks can deliver 17 million maxibricks – which are used in internal walls and general construction – within the first year of operations.

Perth home builders have been warning the state government for months of a looming a brick shortage in the state after Midland Brick began rationing bricks.

“This is a time where we can’t allow this situation to roll on without doing anything,” Treasurer Rita Saffioti said on Tuesday.

“Something needs to be done. We see the urgency. The building industry, in particular, have been very clear.

“We need to get more bricks as soon as possible to ensure this doesn’t become a major challenge that exists for years upon years.”

Even the state’s biggest builders like Dale Alcock of the ABN Group are struggling to get bricks to service their huge pipeline of work

Part of the problem is the lack of capacity by Midland Brick, which remained the state’s only major brick maker after the Cardup facility was mothballed in 2023.

Saffioti said when Cardup was shuttered, the home building market was in a very different situation, but now the pipeline was enormous.

“When that was shut down, there was about 13,500 homes being built in Western Australia each year. We’re now up to 24,000, so the demand is definitely there,” she said.

Alcock said he would go as far as to say that Brickworks’ new facility would still not produce enough bricks to meet demand, “but it’s certainly a large help.”

The state government has poured about $100 million into boosting alternative construction methods to reduce the state’s obsession with double brick.

However, Alcock said WA was still a double brick state.

“We talk about different methods of construction. We’re up for that, but you can’t just change your construction methodology overnight as an industry,” he said.

“I encourage the government to undertake whatever support they can to Midland Brick and to Brickworks to try and increase capacity over the coming years because we are a double brick state and we need bricks.”

Alcock said his company had about 100 jobs with slabs down, but no bricks loaded on them.

“It’s taking us about an average of about four to six weeks to get brick supply,” he said.

Housing Industry Association WA boss Michael McGowan said 70 per cent of homes in the state were built using the double brick construction method.

He said there would likely still be delays over the next 12 months and asked customers to be patient with builders and trades.

Home Builders Action Group chairman Jason Janssen has been raising the industries concerns for months and said, while he welcomed the news that Cardup was restarting, it wouldn’t be enough.

“It gives us hope from March to next year but between now and then there is a lot of uncertainty,” he said.

Janssen called on the state government to switch the majority of its public housing build program, which includes thousands of dwellings, from double brick to alternative construction methods to free up bricks in the private market.

Brickworks was approached for comment.

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